effect of free()
Clifford C. Skolnick
cliffs at suntrek.east.sun.com
Tue Aug 15 00:25:16 AEST 1989
In article <3756 at buengc.BU.EDU> bph at buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
>then if free() is called using ONE of the points, say pt1, as its
>argument, is the space pointed by pt1 really freed?
Yes. It can now be allocated to something else. It is _not_,
however, cleared or otherwise overwritten by free(), nor are
any pointers into it deallocated or overwritten.
In current implimentations this is true. But what if some person makes
a C library that actually returns the space to the operating system? I
would change this to a no.
>[questions about using the pointer]
>My answer to this question SEEMS yes according to some tests I made.
No intervening [mc]alloc()'s, no problem. You have only your
conscience to maintain.
Again, what if the memory was returned to the operating system?
Cliff Skolnick
--
Cliff Skolnick cliffs at sunrock.east.sun.com
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